Council develops new curriculum for school libraries

Determined to make the library schools in Nigeria more technology driven, the Librarians Registration Council of Nigeria, LRCN, has developed new curriculum for library and information science schools programme.
Registrar of LRCN, Dr. Victoria Okojie, who stated this at the end of the Curriculum Review Summit held recently in Lokoja, Kogi State, said major changes were made in the core and elective course arrangements to reflect the new initiative.
In a statement issued by the Chief Information and Protocol Officer of the Council, Mrs. Ngozi Oboh, she explained that the review was aimed at harmonising the course contents of the different library schools’ curriculum and the integration of information and communication technology components.
“More technology courses were introduced as well as management courses, with emphasis on project management, finance, budgets and communication skills; information literacy; library architecture; knowledge management and business skills such as advocacy, marketing and entrepreneurship among others,” she said.
Dr. Okojie maintained that the new curriculum was developed to align with international best practices in the sector and the document will be made public when it is ratified by the stakeholders.
The Registrar further debunked the allegation of non–performance and inefficiency levelled against it by a national daily recently (not Nigerian Pilot) and reaffirmed the Council’s commitment to successfully carry out its mandate.
Dr. Okojie added that, “in pursuance of this mandate, the LRCN has also organized various national workshops for re-skilling and up-skilling of librarians, especially in the use of ICTs. Over 75 per cent of librarians have been trained and re-trained. Draft minimum standards for academic, public and government libraries as well as school library manual have been developed.
“Recently, the Council concluded an assessment of secondary school libraries in the FCT. The data collected will be used to develop a strategic intervention to improve service delivery in school libraries. Over 200 librarians have been trained under Universal Service Provision Fund e-Library sustainability project.”